21 BEST Things to do in Tasmania, Australia in 2026

Watch the Sea Glow at Preservation Bay

Most visitors to Tasmania never hear about Preservation Bay. It is a quiet crescent of water near Penguin on the north-west coast, and on the right summer night between December and March, the water glows. Bioluminescent phytoplankton called Noctiluca scintillans blooms in warm coastal shallows, and any disturbance turns the water electric blue. Swim through it and your arms trail light. Throw a stone and the ripples pulse like a dropped lamp.

The phenomenon is unpredictable, which is part of what keeps it off mainstream itineraries. Local fishermen know when conditions are right by the faint milky tinge in the water by daylight. The best approach is to camp a night near Penguin or Burnie during a new moon phase in January or February, walk to the beach after 10pm, and wade in quietly. There are no ticket booths. No guided tours required. No crowds.

This is not unique to Preservation Bay alone. Tiny inlets along the north-west coast near Boat Harbour and Sisters Beach have been known to glow in similar conditions. If the ocean is doing something remarkable and there is no crowd around it, Tasmania is usually the place.

Walk the Ancient Tarkine Rainforest

The Tarkine is the largest expanse of cool temperate rainforest remaining in Australia, and the second largest in the entire world after parts of Chilean Patagonia. It covers roughly 447,000 hectares in Tasmania's remote north-west, and it is difficult to overstate how primeval it feels. The myrtle beeches are 800 years old. The huon pines found in river valleys along the Pieman River can live for 3,000 years. Trees that were already old when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour are still quietly standing here.

The Tarkine Drive, an unsealed road of roughly 100 kilometres, is the most accessible way in. It threads through the Savage River Valley and emerges at the bleak and magnificent Southern Ocean coast near Temma. The coastal heath is wind-battered and treeless, strewn with driftwood the size of buses that has washed in from South America. There is genuinely nothing between this coastline and Antarctica.

For a deeper experience, the multi-day Tarkine wilderness walk offered by small-group operators takes visitors into sections of the forest no road reaches. River otters, spotted-tailed quolls, and Tasmanian devils are all found here. The night skies, with no town light for 150 kilometres in any direction, are extraordinary.

The gentle valleys of Tasmania shift quickly into remote wilderness. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

Spend a Day with Wombats on Maria Island

Maria Island sits off Tasmania's east coast and is accessible by a short ferry from Triabunna. It has no sealed roads, no cafes, no shops, and no cars. What it does have is one of the most extraordinary wildlife encounters in Australia. Common wombats have lived here for so long without predation or human pressure that they have become almost entirely unbothered by people. Sit still on the grass outside the old Darlington convict settlement and a wombat will eventually waddle within arm's reach, sniff the air, decide you are not interesting, and get back to eating.

The island also holds eastern quolls, Cape Barren geese, Forester kangaroos, and a thriving colony of little penguins in the northern cliffs. Birdwatchers can tick off Forty-spotted pardalotes, one of Australia's rarest birds, in the dry sclerophyll forests on the north end.

Beyond wildlife, the Darlington ruins tell the story of the island's Italian immigrant settlement in the early twentieth century and its convict era before that. The painted cliffs on the south of the island, reached by a 45-minute walk, are layered sandstone in shades of amber, rust, and cream that look airbrushed by a surrealist painter.

Reach the Wineglass Bay Lookout Before Sunrise

The waters around Freycinet run a shade of turquoise that looks digitally enhanced in photographs. It is not. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

Wineglass Bay is regularly called one of the world's ten most beautiful beaches. The description holds up. The pink granite peaks of the Hazards frame a perfect crescent of white silica sand and water that runs turquoise to deep cobalt. The hike to the lookout is 40 minutes from the car park at Freycinet National Park — steep but well maintained, rewarding a view that genuinely makes people stop mid-breath.

The crowd, however, can be intense between 9am and 4pm in summer. The practical move is to start the climb in pre-dawn darkness using a head torch. By the time you reach the saddle between the Hazards, the sun is just clearing the Tasman Sea, the beach below is empty, and the light is doing something that no camera has ever fully translated. Give yourself an extra 90 minutes and descend to the beach itself rather than simply viewing it from above. The water is cold and clean enough to drink.

For quieter alternatives within Freycinet National Park, the Friendly Beaches in the northern section of the park remain little-visited even in peak season. Sleepy Bay and Honeymoon Bay on the south side of the Hazards are sheltered and accessible with short walks. Honeymoon Bay in particular is one of the finest swimming spots in Australia that most Australians cannot name.

Walk the Overland Track

Cradle Mountain rising above Dove Lake — the beginning of Australia's most iconic multi-day walk. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

The Overland Track is 65 kilometres of walking through the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, one of Australia's most celebrated long-distance hikes. The standard route takes six days walking south from Cradle Mountain to Cynthia Bay on Lake St Clair, the deepest lake in Australia. Along the way, the track crosses alpine moorlands, threads through ancient pencil pine forests, passes waterfalls, and climbs to several optional summit side trips including Mount Ossa at 1,617 metres — the highest point in Tasmania.

During the peak season from November to April, walkers must book in advance and walk south to north in a managed flow, limited to 34 people per day starting at Cradle Mountain. This keeps hut pressure manageable and the track from feeling congested despite its fame. The huts are basic but functional. Most serious walkers carry tents regardless.

Two things consistently surprise first-time Overland walkers. The first is the wombats, who treat the track as their private highway and will not move for anything. The second is how quickly the weather changes. A clear sunny morning at Cradle Mountain can become a whiteout within 90 minutes. Tasmania's weather follows its own rules, and this track tests preparedness more thoroughly than most multi-day routes in Australia.

Go Underground at Mole Creek Caves

Mole Creek is a small town in the Great Western Tiers, roughly an hour south of Devonport. Most people drive past it without stopping. Below the ground beneath the karst limestone hills surrounding the town is one of the finest cave systems in Australia, and it sits inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Marakoopa Cave holds one of the most remarkable underground sights in the Southern Hemisphere: a dark underground stream with glowworm colonies on the ceiling above it. Step inside on a guided tour, let your eyes adjust to the absolute darkness, and the ceiling turns into what looks like a low-hanging galaxy — thousands of tiny blue-green lights reflected in the water below. The effect is so disorienting and so beautiful that most people simply stand silent for several minutes.

King Solomon's Cave, the second cave in the system, runs drier and higher and is known for its calcite formations — stalactites, stalagmites, and cave coral that have been growing for hundreds of thousands of years. Both caves require a guided tour, which is the right approach since the formations are genuinely fragile and the guides explain the geology with the kind of depth that transforms the experience from curiosity to fascination.

MONA: The Museum That Changed Hobart

Hobart's sandstone heritage buildings along the waterfront — a short ferry ride from MONA. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

Before the Museum of Old and New Art opened in 2011, Hobart was charming but overlooked. MONA changed that permanently. Built into the sandstone cliff of a peninsula 12 kilometres from the city centre, the museum is the private collection of David Walsh, a professional gambler who made a fortune using mathematics to beat casino games and spent a significant portion of it on art that provokes, disturbs, and astonishes in roughly equal measure.

The building itself descends three floors underground into the rock. There are no conventional exhibition rooms. Art appears in chambers, in corridors, embedded in walls. A machine that produces human faeces on a continuous cycle sits near antiquities from ancient Egypt. A wall of 151 vulvae cast in fibreglass hangs in a space below a Baroque fresco. Everything is intentional, and everything earns its place. The O — Walsh's app-based guide that the museum calls a companion rather than an audio guide — allows visitors to love or hate any piece, building a picture of collective response that is itself part of the experience.

The MONA FOMA festival in January and Dark Mofo in June, both produced by the museum, have turned Hobart into one of Australia's most interesting cultural cities. If you visit in June, the Dark Mofo winter festival fills the city with fire, music, and what the organisers describe as a celebration of darkness. It is unlike anything else in Australia.

Walk the Three Capes Track

The sea cliffs of the Tasman Peninsula reach nearly 300 metres — among the tallest dolerite columns in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

The Three Capes Track on the Tasman Peninsula is Tasmania's most dramatic multi-day walk. Over four days and roughly 46 kilometres, it traverses the capes of Pillar, Hauy, and Raoul, ending at Port Arthur. The defining feature of the track is the sea cliffs. The dolerite columns at Cape Pillar reach almost 300 metres directly from the ocean and are among the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere. The scale is genuinely hard to grasp until you are standing at the edge watching albatrosses wheel below you.

The track is capped at 48 walkers per day, which gives it a remarkably uncrowded feel despite its renown. The huts along the route are architecturally distinctive and generously equipped with wood heaters, flush toilets, and solar-powered charging points — a level of infrastructure that makes this track accessible to walkers who might not otherwise attempt a four-day backcountry journey. Parks Tasmania runs the booking system and the walk is included in the national park pass plus a nightly hut fee.

The Totem Pole and Candlestick sea stacks visible from the Cape Hauy section are legendary among rock climbers globally. To stand above them on the track and watch someone tiny rappelling their faces in the wind is one of those sights that resets your sense of human scale entirely.

Sunset on the Orange Rocks of Bay of Fires

The Bay of Fires is not named for the colour of its rocks, though the rocks deserve that name. The orange and rust tones are lichen — Caloplaca marina — which coats the granite boulders along 29 kilometres of the north-east coast. The name actually comes from the fires that early European mariners saw burning along the coast, lit by the Palawa people who have lived in this landscape for at least 35,000 years.

The combination of colours here is almost absurdly beautiful: white silica sand, water running from turquoise to deep navy, green ti-tree scrub, and those vivid orange boulders that glow copper in late afternoon sun. The best vantage point for the sunset is from the rocks at the southern end of Binalong Bay, which is also the most accessible part of the reserve. Walk north from Binalong Bay along the foreshore track as the light changes and you will understand why Australian landscape painters have been coming here for decades.

The Bay of Fires is also prime wildlife territory. The beaches run through Mount William National Park, and Forester kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, and eastern quolls appear regularly at dawn and dusk. The underwater environment is rich with abalone, crayfish, and diverse reef fish. Snorkelling from the beach at the protected southern end is possible year-round and excellent in the warmer months.

Cradle Mountain: The Walk Around Dove Lake

Dove Lake on a still morning reflects Cradle Mountain before the clouds arrive. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

Cradle Mountain at 1,545 metres is the most photographed landmark in Tasmania, and it earns the attention. The serrated dolerite summit is the result of glacial action during the last ice age, and the landscape around it holds some of the best evidence on the continent of what temperate glaciation looks like — cirque walls, moraines, kettle lakes, and the perfect bowl of Dove Lake sitting directly below the mountain's face.

The 6-kilometre walk around Dove Lake is the most universally accessible great walk in Tasmania. It has no significant elevation change, takes two to three hours at a comfortable pace, and offers views that shift with every corner. The boardwalk sections protect the fragile button grass moorland and allow walkers with limited mobility to access sections of the loop that would otherwise be difficult.

The greater ambition is to summit the mountain itself. The climb is serious — exposed scrambling on wet dolerite in the final section — and requires a clear day, good footwear, and adequate preparation. The rewarding thing about the ascent is not just the view from the top but the shift in vegetation zones on the way up: from myrtle beech forest to alpine heath to bare quartzite and finally to the exposed top where the wind is constant and the views extend 100 kilometres in every direction.

Wombats in the Cradle Mountain area have developed a reputation for approaching people unprompted and refusing to be hurried. In winter, when snow settles in the valley, they appear at the edges of car parks looking round and confused and entirely photogenic.

The Edge of the World

There is a lookout on the far north-west coast of Tasmania that carries perhaps the most accurate name of any viewpoint in Australia. A small timber platform, a few information signs, and a plaque mark the spot at the end of a rough track near Arthur River. Beyond the railing, there is nothing. The Southern Ocean stretches south without interruption to Antarctica. The nearest landmass in a straight line west from this point is Patagonia.

The coastline here is raw in a way that coastal landscapes rarely achieve. The wind is constant and cold even in summer. Enormous driftwood logs — some of them the trunks of South American trees that have floated across the Drake Passage — lie stranded on the black sand beach below. The sea is the colour of old pewter, and it breaks on offshore rocks with a sound that carries for kilometres.

The drive to reach this point is itself part of the experience. The Arthur River road passes through the Tarkine forest edge, crosses lonely heathland, and arrives at the coast where the transition from protected rainforest to exposed Southern Ocean is immediate and jolting. There are no facilities, no shops, and no mobile signal for much of the route. Plan fuel accordingly.

Descend Ben Lomond by Mountain Bike

Ben Lomond National Park in the north-east is Tasmania's main ski area in winter, with enough snowfall most years to keep its two ski lifts running from July to September. In summer, the alpine plateau sits empty and extraordinary above the surrounding farmland, accessible via the terrifying hairpin road called Jacob's Ladder — nine switchbacks on a gradient that makes rental car agreements feel suddenly relevant.

The Ben Lomond Descent is a guided mountain bike experience that lets riders descend 1,050 vertical metres from the alpine plateau to the valley below on a series of purpose-built trails. The guide vehicle shuttles bikes to the summit. The descent through sub-alpine vegetation, open moorland, and eventually eucalyptus forest to the valley floor takes around three to four hours at a relaxed pace and is suitable for intermediate riders with reasonable confidence on gravel and natural surface trails.

This experience sits well below the radar of most Tasmania travel itineraries, which is a genuine oversight. The plateau view at the top — across farmland, forest, and distant coastline — is the kind of panorama that normally requires a helicopter.

Day Walk to Cape Hauy

The Cape Hauy Track in the Tasman National Park is one of the finest day walks in Australia. Starting from the Fortescue Bay car park, it follows the clifftop for roughly 10 kilometres return, passing through coastal tea-tree heath, ancient casuarina forest, and eventually arriving at the clifftop above the Totem Pole and Candlestick — two isolated dolerite sea stacks that rise from the ocean 65 metres and 90 metres respectively.

The track is well-maintained and clearly marked, making it accessible to walkers of moderate fitness. The exposure at the cliff edges is real: the dolerite drops straight to deep water and the wind can be significant. The reward is proportional. On a clear day, the sea views extend across to Maria Island and north toward Freycinet, and the sense of standing at the very edge of the Tasman Peninsula gives the walk a geographical clarity that is hard to describe from a desk.

From Cape Hauy, it is worth extending south to Cape Raoul, where the dolerite organ-pipe columns run for hundreds of metres along the clifftop and the world-class big-wave surf break at Shipstern Bluff can be seen breaking below in the right swell conditions. This detour adds considerable distance and should be planned for a full day with an early start.

Bridestowe Lavender Estate in Full Bloom

Bridestowe Lavender Estate near Nabowla in the north-east is one of the largest lavender farms in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the most visually extraordinary seasonal destinations in Tasmania. For roughly four weeks between late December and early February, 80 hectares of Tasmanian Angustifolia lavender comes into full bloom, turning the slopes above the farm a shade of purple that photographers spend half their shutter speeds trying and mostly failing to capture accurately.

The estate produces lavender oil through steam distillation, and on hot afternoons during the bloom the scent hangs over the surrounding farmland for several kilometres. Lavender honey, lavender tea, lavender shortbread, and the farm's own cosmetic range are available from the visitor centre. The purple ice cream, made from real lavender extract, has developed its own reputation and draws visitors from Launceston and beyond specifically for the experience.

Outside the bloom period, the estate is still worth visiting for its scenery and produce. The timing of peak bloom varies by year and is influenced by temperatures in November and December. The estate posts updates on their website as the season approaches, which is worth monitoring for anyone planning a January trip.

Kayak Bathurst Harbour in the Far South

Bathurst Harbour and Port Davey in Tasmania's South West National Park are among the most remote and least-visited places on the island. The region sits within one of the largest tracts of intact temperate wilderness remaining on Earth. There is no road access. The only way in is by light aircraft from Hobart, by walking the South Coast Track (one of Australia's most demanding multi-day hikes), or by private vessel.

The harbour itself is sheltered, extraordinary, and strange. The tannin-stained water flowing from buttongrass plains creates a dark fresh-water layer that sits on top of the salt water below, giving the harbour a two-toned appearance visible from the air and from the shore. The silence in the evening is absolute. Mountains rise directly from the water. The vegetation has the quality of something pre-human — low, wind-shaped, and ancient.

Small-group kayak expeditions operating from Hobart run multi-day trips into Bathurst Harbour via charter flight. Numbers are very limited by the national park permit system, and the cost reflects the remoteness. This is not a destination for a casual afternoon — it is a trip that people plan years in advance and talk about for the rest of their lives.

The Tamar Valley Wine Route

The Tamar Valley stretching north of Launceston is the oldest wine-producing region in Australia, with the first plantings made in the 1820s. The cool climate here — influenced by the valley topography and the proximity to Bass Strait — produces wines of distinctive character: lean and mineral Rieslings, aromatic Pinot Gris, sparkling wines made by the traditional method, and Pinot Noir that earns consistent international attention.

Over 30 wineries operate in the valley, ranging from boutique producers selling only at the cellar door to larger estates with restaurants and accommodation. The 60-kilometre wine route between Launceston and George Town is best driven over two days to avoid the obvious problem. Particularly worth seeking out are the smaller producers who do not appear on mainstream itineraries and who open only on weekends or by appointment.

The Swiss-inspired village of Grindelwald sits within the valley and offers one of the more surreal experiences in Tasmania: an 18-hole golf course, mini-golf, and Swiss-style architecture transplanted intact into the Tasmanian countryside. It is kitsch and charming in equal measure and is genuinely enjoyable if approached with the right spirit.

Salamanca Market, Every Saturday Morning

Salamanca Market turns the precinct alive every Saturday — the best single morning to spend in Hobart. Photo: Kalyan Panja / Travtasy

Salamanca Place in Hobart is a row of sandstone warehouses built in the 1830s for the merchant trade. They were nearly demolished in the 1970s to make way for a car park. The campaign to save them was the start of modern heritage preservation consciousness in Tasmania, and the result is one of the finest examples of adaptive heritage reuse in Australia. The warehouses now hold galleries, restaurants, bars, design studios, and theatre spaces that together form the cultural heart of the city.

Every Saturday morning from 8.30am to 3pm, Salamanca Place hosts one of Australia's most authentic and best-attended outdoor markets. Around 300 stallholders spread across the cobblestones selling local produce, Tasmanian cheese, oysters from Bruny Island and the Huon Valley, handmade ceramics, leather goods, second-hand books, and island-made gin. The market draws both locals and visitors and retains the quality and character that makes it genuinely worth arriving for. Get there before 9am for the pick of the produce and the best light for photography along the sandstone frontages.

Mount Wellington Above Hobart

Mount Wellington — Kunanyi in the Palawa language — rises to 1,271 metres directly above central Hobart. On clear days it is visible from the city centre, and on winter mornings snow on the summit creates the surreal combination of a snowcapped mountain visible from a working waterfront. The mountain defines the city's skyline, and locals check its cap of cloud the way other cities check weather apps.

The summit road is open to private vehicles and takes about 30 minutes from the city in clear conditions, arriving at a dolomite observation shelter at the top. The view from the summit takes in the Derwent River estuary, the Huon Valley, Maria Island to the east, and on exceptional days the mountains of the mainland faintly visible to the north. In strong wind the summit is violent and cold regardless of season. Always bring more layers than you think you need.

For walkers, the Organ Pipes Track from the Springs car park partway up the mountain is one of the finest short-medium walks in the greater Hobart area. It traverses the base of the dolerite cliff faces, passes through diverse vegetation zones, and offers close-up views of the rock formation that gives the mountain its distinctive profile from the city below.

The Tahune AirWalk and Huon Valley

The Huon Valley south of Hobart is where Tasmania's apple industry was born, and the orchards still run in rows along the gentle hills beside the Huon River. The valley produces extraordinary fruit, and the farm gate stalls along the Huon Highway are some of the best places to buy local produce in the state. The Huon Heritage Apple Trust maintains a collection of over 800 heritage apple varieties near Grove, and tours of the orchards during autumn harvest are available to small groups.

At the southern end of the valley, the Tahune AirWalk is a steel walkway suspended 55 metres above the forest floor at the confluence of the Huon and Picton rivers. The AirWalk extends for 620 metres through the canopy of ancient swamp gum forest, including trees over 80 metres tall and more than 300 years old. At the end of the main walkway, a shorter cantilever section projects 24 metres beyond the cliff face with nothing below. The vertigo it induces is clean and sudden and thoroughly worth experiencing.

Port Arthur: History That Does Not Let Go

Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula is Australia's most visited heritage site outside the capital cities, and the history it holds is genuinely difficult. The settlement was established in 1830 as a secondary punishment site for convicts who had reoffended in the colony. Between 1833 and 1853, it was the most feared destination in the entire convict system — a place where the application of reformist theories of punishment through isolation and silence drove significant numbers of its inmates to madness.

Over 12,000 convicts passed through Port Arthur. Today, the 40-hectare site preserves the ruins of the penitentiary, the hospital, the model prison, the church, and dozens of associated structures. The guided daily tours are excellent and cover both the convict era and the 1996 massacre that occurred here — a tragedy that shaped Australian gun legislation and remains a wound in the community's memory. The site handles both histories with appropriate gravity.

The nightly ghost tour, which walks the ruins by lantern light and draws on well-documented accounts of strange occurrences reported by site staff over generations, is consistently described as one of the most unsettling and compelling tourist experiences in Australia. Book it regardless of your position on the supernatural.

Watching the Aurora Australis from Tasmania

Tasmania is the best place in Australia to see the Aurora Australis. The island's southerly latitude (around 42 degrees south) combined with low light pollution over most of the island puts significant portions of the night sky within range of geomagnetic activity that creates the Southern Lights. The displays are not predictable, but between April and August geomagnetic activity increases and the nights are long enough to make the chances considerably better.

The optimal viewing locations are coastal areas with a clear southern horizon and no town lights nearby. South Arm Peninsula south of Hobart, the beaches around Cockle Creek in the far south, and the clifftops of Bruny Island's South Bruny National Park are among the most reliable. The Astronomical Society of Tasmania posts alerts when geomagnetic conditions look promising, and several dedicated aurora-tracking apps give real-time forecasts.

A strong display on a calm autumn night above Cockle Creek, with the Milky Way core also visible, is one of those experiences that fundamentally changes how you think about the relationship between light and darkness. Tasmania at its most elemental.

Practical Information for Visiting Tasmania

Getting to Tasmania

Hobart Airport and Launceston Airport both receive direct flights from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and other Australian cities. Jetstar, Qantas, and Virgin Australia all serve the island. From Melbourne specifically, the Spirit of Tasmania overnight ferry runs from Geelong to Devonport on the north coast. The crossing takes approximately 9 to 11 hours and allows you to bring your own vehicle, making it one of the most practical and enjoyable approaches to exploring the island at your own pace.

Getting around Tasmania

A rental car is essential for exploring beyond the two main cities. Public bus services connect Hobart, Launceston, and Devonport but do not reach the national parks or coastal areas that define the Tasmanian experience. Book a car in advance for summer travel, as demand consistently exceeds supply between December and February. Campervans and motorhomes are popular and sensible for longer trips, given Tasmania's excellent campsite network.

When to visit

December to February is peak season: long days, warmest temperatures (typically 18 to 23 degrees), and the best conditions for coastal activities and long walks. It is also the most crowded and expensive period. September to November offers spring wildflowers, substantially fewer visitors, comfortable walking temperatures, and much better accommodation availability. June to August is genuinely cold in the highlands and frequent wet spells affect the west coast, but this is when MONA's Dark Mofo festival runs, lavender is not blooming, and the island has a particular austere beauty that rewards those prepared for it.

National parks pass

A Parks Tasmania pass is required for entry to all national parks on the island. Passes can be purchased for two weeks, four weeks, or a full year. For any trip of more than a few days that includes Cradle Mountain, Freycinet, and the Tasman Peninsula, the value of a longer pass is clear. Purchase online before arrival.

Accommodation

Hobart and Launceston have a full range of options from budget hostels to boutique heritage hotels. In the national parks, accommodation ranges from basic campgrounds to the luxury lodges at Cradle Mountain and Freycinet. For the walking tracks, huts must be booked through Parks Tasmania and fill quickly in peak season. Unusual accommodation options worth seeking out include the converted historic railway buildings at Queenstown, boutique glamping sites in the Huon Valley, and the remote shacks on Flinders Island.